Introducing School Gardens to the Omani Context: A Preliminary Study with Grade 7 Classes

Abdulla Ambusaidi; Rashid Al-Yahyai; Neil Taylor; Subhashni Taylor

doi:10.12973/ejmste/80859

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Abdulla Ambusaidi ¹, Rashid Al-Yahyai ¹, Neil Taylor ² ^* , Subhashni Taylor ²

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¹ Sultan Qaboos University, OMAN² University of New England, AUSTRALIA^* Corresponding Author

Abstract

The Sultanate of Oman is beginning to experience a rapid increase in ‘lifestyle’ diseases, most notably diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. These may be linked to increasing poor dietary habits, and a more sedentary lifestyle, amongst the younger generation. In a number of Western contexts, school gardens have been shown to improve not only student attitudes to diet but also improved learning and affective outcomes. A pilot school gardening project involving a mixed method quasi-experimental design was undertaken in Oman with a number of Grade 7 classes. While the outcomes of this study should be treated tentatively, the quantitative findings indicate that employing school gardens as an educational resource might improve learning outcomes in the area of science skill development. The qualitative findings suggested that the project had a positive impact on the affective domain of students and in some cases encouraged them to pursue healthier eating habits.

Keywords

diet
mixed methods
Oman
pilot study
school gardening

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This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Article Type: Research Article

EURASIA J Math Sci Tech Ed, 2018, Volume 14, Issue 3, 1043-1055

https://doi.org/10.12973/ejmste/80859

Publication date: 23 Dec 2017

Online publication date: 13 Dec 2017

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Article Downloads: 1566

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How to cite this article

APA

Ambusaidi, A., Al-Yahyai, R., Taylor, N., & Taylor, S. (2018). Introducing School Gardens to the Omani Context: A Preliminary Study with Grade 7 Classes. Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, 14(3), 1043-1055. https://doi.org/10.12973/ejmste/80859

Vancouver

Ambusaidi A, Al-Yahyai R, Taylor N, Taylor S. Introducing School Gardens to the Omani Context: A Preliminary Study with Grade 7 Classes. EURASIA J Math Sci Tech Ed. 2018;14(3):1043-55. https://doi.org/10.12973/ejmste/80859

AMA

Ambusaidi A, Al-Yahyai R, Taylor N, Taylor S. Introducing School Gardens to the Omani Context: A Preliminary Study with Grade 7 Classes. EURASIA J Math Sci Tech Ed. 2018;14(3), 1043-1055. https://doi.org/10.12973/ejmste/80859

Chicago

Ambusaidi, Abdulla, Rashid Al-Yahyai, Neil Taylor, and Subhashni Taylor. "Introducing School Gardens to the Omani Context: A Preliminary Study with Grade 7 Classes". Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education 2018 14 no. 3 (2018): 1043-1055. https://doi.org/10.12973/ejmste/80859

Harvard

Ambusaidi, A., Al-Yahyai, R., Taylor, N., and Taylor, S. (2018). Introducing School Gardens to the Omani Context: A Preliminary Study with Grade 7 Classes. Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, 14(3), pp. 1043-1055. https://doi.org/10.12973/ejmste/80859

MLA

Ambusaidi, Abdulla et al. "Introducing School Gardens to the Omani Context: A Preliminary Study with Grade 7 Classes". Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, vol. 14, no. 3, 2018, pp. 1043-1055. https://doi.org/10.12973/ejmste/80859